[lbo-talk] FT/Harris: Economic stupidity epidemic throughoutpopulace

[Carrol Cox]

Under developed capitalism there is no direct link between the visible
and the real, between act and motive, between cause and effect. But
"ordinary" knowledge is grounded in genralizing precisely from a
perceived link between a cause and effect, between an act and the motive
of that act. And so we arive at KM's observation that there would be no
need for science if appearance and reality coincided. But capitalist
society will never, except under odd  conditions, generate the kind of
educational system which seriously explores this gap. Schools in the
'50s and 60s _did_, for a sizeable number (though low percentage) of the
_general_ population provide this. TROUBLE. Perceiving the gap, they
wanted it closed.

But note that around a third of the population in these surveys was
_not_ ignorant. Probably over half of them were still pretty
conservative. But that leaves a potential constituency for mass
movements of around 15%: that is actually a HUGE number. I think a
rather smaller per centage turned the world upside down in the '60s.

This contains the heart of my arguments against the Idea of Progress,
against hope in electoral politics, agains small changes adding up to
big changes, and against grounding politics in mral judgments.

Carrol